Be Still and Know

Hallo!!

Wow, it has been a long and short, and wonderful week!So many things happened!

Highlights:

*We finally are officially living in Duisburg (we got Anmelded, thanks to the genius of Elder Kress)

*We had some incredible appointments with our investigators from Iran. They are so cool! We have been using Skype to translate, which has made things super fun!

*We had MLC this week, where we gave a musical number AND a thema!

*I got to go to ALDI! I love Aldi...almost as much as I love Trader Joe's

The Offenbach Dragon

As usual, there is never quite enough time to write about all of the wonderful things that happened in a week.

I just wanted to say that I know God lives.

It's been a turbulent few weeks for me, with joy, and sorrow, comfort and frustration, all mixed into one big ball, and I have felt weighed down by it all.

But

We had this incredible experience today. We were headed back from a pday Easter Monday brunch, and we had four minutes before our bus came. We decided to walk zum Fuß, and took a super cool picture. Then I turned around, and there was this guy there, so I just offered him a card. He said no, and that he was atheist. He was walking away, so I called out after him (in this empty, echo-y cobble-stone street)

"If you pray to God tonight, and ask Him if He is there, He will answer you...Have a nice day!"

And then we headed back to the bus stop.

He came around the corner as well, and I was like

oohh...awkward....yup, we're still here

And then he comes up to us, and is like

"Ok. I want to take the two of you out of coffee, and you have until 17:30 to try to convert me."

We were shocked.

Well, in a nutshell, three hours later (only possible because it was a pday) we had talked about God, energy, light, the earth "rolling together as a scroll", church, faith, and a host of other things. We left him with a Book of Mormon, which he said he would read. He is convinced by his current belief, and has no desire in changing, but we have hope.

Anyway, during this conversation, it really hit me how perfect the plan is. I was filled with this inner peace that was truly wonderful, and it made me realize, that sometimes we just need to take a moment to be still and know that God is God. Just to listen to what He has to say.

He lives!!

Hallelujah!

love always,

Sister Roderer

Playing Football with most of the Duisburg District

Marinade of Life

When you have two people in two phones talk to each other.

Highlights:
From the last three weeks
*Got beard burn from an overly friendly potential investigator, who shocked me on the street, and greeted me in his culture before I could react.
*We were in the church and someone called the church phone, and we picked up, and the person on the other line said he wanted to be baptized and asked what he needed to do! We set up an appointment with him, but later felt like we needed to give him to the Elders to teach. At the moment the Elders were meeting with him, I was in a bus being told by a man that if I would join his religion, he would marry me...I think out of some misunderstood pity. The irony though. But, inspiration always hold true.
*We were dropped by an investigator through text, who told us amid smiliey emoticons that he researched us and didn't buy it and to never contact us again. It felt strangely like a break-up text.
*We explained the Atonement with the analogy of a rose bush to a Muslim, and he said that were extremely convincing, and that he'd have to think about it. Christ is our Savior!
*Someone who saw the beard burn encounter called me out and said simply "Du bist schlecht". When I further questioned him to figure out why, he got all confused and didn't give me a straight answer, and then ended up apologizing, just so I would go away...
*Someone called us yesterday to say that he had had an appointment with us two months ago, but at the time he cancelled it, and threw his Book of Mormon away. Since then, he has had only bad luck, and he knows it is because he has offended "our God". He wants to meet now.

World-o-meter
Egypt
Poland
Russia
Turkey
Croatia
Bangladesh
Iran
Syria
Gambia
Kenya
Afghanistan
Germany

Deutsch:
"Expectations" auf Deutsch is "Erwartungen", which is closely associated with the word "Warten" which means "to wait". Are our "Erwartungen" causing us to wait to act, wait to serve, or wait to love?

Be sure to watch the new video for Easter, my folks!


My thoughts today come from the talk What Lack I Yet.

Part of my MTC group at Zone Conference.

"Years ago I read these words of President Spencer W. Kimball, which had a lasting impact on me. He said: “I have learned that where there is a prayerful heart, a hungering after righteousness, a forsaking of sins, and obedience to the commandments of God, the Lord pours out more and more light until there is finally power to pierce the heavenly veil. ... A person of such righteousness has the priceless promise that one day he shall see the Lord’s face and know that he is.” (What Lack I Yet?)"

NOWHERE does it say "a perfect person", "a popular person", "a -whatever-you-currently-think-you-don't-have person". However, it does talk about being honest and genuine, about facing your weaknesses with honesty and love. It does talk about taking responsibility, and softness of spirit, and never EVER giving up.

If spiritual growth is not a priority in our lives, if we are not on a course of steady improvement, we will miss out on the important experiences that God wants to give us. (What Lack I Yet?)

And if we are, we need to not hyperventilate if it doesn't go as quickly as we think it should. God wants, and we want the change to be permanent. That means it has to go deep. Like when you marinate steak, you want it in the marinade for at least a few hours, so that the flavor seeps through. Same with the lessons that we learn. Don't be afraid if you seemed to be swimming in the marinade of life. It is not a sign of weakness or failure, but rather one of permanent and lasting change. It's a good thing.


Anyway, Happy Easter! Christ is our Savior, He has redeemed us. Hope is reachable, and we can be healed, fully completely, totally, and utterly.

Love always,

Sister Roderer

One Life

That one time I don't have any time to write
because we went to Köln for p-day.....
533 steps later...

Here is a quote that blew my mind this week...

In Maxwell Anderson’s play about the youthful
Joan of Arc, she says, “Every woman gives her life
for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in
little or nothing, nevertheless, they give up their lives
to that little or nothing. One life is all we have, and
we live it as we believe in living it, and then it’s gone.
But to surrender what you are, and live without
belief--that’s more terrible than dying--more terrible
than dying young.”
(Maxwell Anderson, “Joan of Lorraine,” New
York: Dramatists’ Play Service, 1945, act 2, scene 4.

Sister Roderer

#areyoumyinvestigator?

Highlights:

*Stake Conference was this weekend and the Spider came with us. All of the people who talked to him knew his story, and they were really happy to talk to him! It made my heart so warm to see that!!!!!!

*We were able to explore places in Duisburg that I have never been before...that was an adventure!

*Some former investigators showed up again, and we are excited to teach them!!

*We were dooring by a referral, and Sister Markl felt like we needed to have a theme. So then we both prayed and felt that it should be "peace". So we went to the next door, and klingeld.

No one answered.

I almost walked away, but Sister Markl tried again.

A lady opened and we were able to have a great conversation about the Restoration.

She shut the door, and I mentioned that I wished we had had a Book of Mormon with us to show her as evidence, because she wanted to know what evidence we had about Joseph Smith. Sister Markl said she had one with her.

So what do we do?

We turn around and knock again.

She was surprised to see us again.

We offered her the Book, which she didn't take, but we walked away knowing we had done our part.

*You know the book "Are You My Mother?"

Well, we played "Are You My Investigator?" this week.

We were going to an appointment with someone who had been taught by Sister Terry and Sister Johnson, so I didn't know what he looked like. I only had a few defining features about his family, so on our way to his apartment, I stopped EVERYONE who looked like they could match the description and asked them

"Are you K?"

"Is your husband K?"

There was one family who were really confused when we asked them. When we realized that they weren't "K", we asked them if they wanted to learn more about Christ anyway.

They did.

World-o-meter:

Bangladesh

India

Pakistan

Syria

Ghana

Gambia

Nigeria

Germany

Turkey

and some I can't spell

We had an incredible member missionary moment this week. In our last member appointment, we challenged them to write their testimony in a copy of the Book of Mormon, and we would pray over it, and then give it out to someone, and then we would report back on the story.

So...

We were on the U79 (again) and I talked to this lady who was telling me about her "return to faith" and then I started talking to her about the Book of Mormon. She was super interested, and she wanted a copy. I didn't have one on me, but we made an appointment out for later that week. I also got her number so I could confirm the appointment.

I was packing for the day of the appointment, and I felt sure that this specific Book of Mormon was the one that was supposed to go to her.

When I went to confirm the appointment, I realized that the number didn't work. We were not sure if the appointment would go through, and it was really far away, and we knew when we got there that we wouldn't know where to go to meet with her, so we decided to stay and meet with another investigator that was leaving the next day to move to Poland.

I felt really bad about missing that opportunity, even though there was not much that we could have done.

In comp the next morning, I said a prayer, and apologized for my weakness, and the possibility that I had written the number down incorrectly, and prayed for another chance to see her and give her the Book of Mormon.

Due to a few fallen out appointments, our day put us back on the U79 at a different time than originally scheduled. As the Bahn pulled up, to my shock, there was the lady!! She saw me, and I saw her and I immediately sat down and started talking to her. I gave her that copy of the Book of Mormon (which I still had in my bag) and was able to recount the story of the Restoration.

When I called the members back to tell them this story, they were so excited.

I am so grateful that the Lord's mercy covers our failures, and that He is at the helm of this work.

"The Atonement is real, and it works". It cleanses us, purifies us, empowers us, heals us, and motivates us. It makes change possible. It brings hope. And it is all through the matchless gift of Our Father, even that He sent His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I love Jesus Christ.

John Donne said once: “We ask our daily bread, and God never says, ‘You should have come yesterday.’ … [No, he says,] ‘Today if you will hear [my] voice, today I will hear yours.’ … If thou hast been benighted till now, wintered and frozen, clouded and eclipsed, damp and benumbed, smothered and stupefied till now, God yet comes to thee, not as in the dawning of the day, … but as the sun at [full] noon, to banish all shadows” (Collected Sermons).

Love Always,

Sister Roderer